around the corner

What was around the corner that could possibly have stopped me from storytelling the first night?

Well, the weekend following was jam packed…  t-shirt painting at the Elwood Primary School market on Saturday, AND a screenwriting workshop at the Abbotsford convent. Katherine said she could be at the stall while I went to the workshop and we worked out how to get the stall set up, my neighbour said she could help pack up and they could bring the trailer back to my place.  Sounded like a plan. Oh, and the model shoot was organised (see wear art thou) for Sunday – nothing like a bit of pressure to get organised!

Being in a state of madness is the only explanation I can give for scheduling the model shoot that weekend, in the moment when I scheduled the casting call I had a perfectly valid reason for doing it, that reason went completely out the window when the weekend approached. The apartment looked like a mad crazy art studio for three weeks, with clothes everywhere and a futon that also insisted on being painted at the same time – another moment of insanity (if I’ve got the ink out I may as well paint the futon - front and back -too).  Nothing like  bit of pressure…. I worked thru the night once, with my neighbours’ Marilyn Monroe DVD collection – perfect inspiration for the painting frenzy.

The weekend started out according to plan, met with Katherine at the market on Saturday morning to get the stall set up before I headed off to Abbotsford convent. On the drive there the gears started to feel quite weird, they got more and more difficult to shift into place by the time I arrived at the convent.  I put it at the back of my mind and sat down ready for a great day.  Called Katherine at 1pm to find out if my neighbour had arrived to help her pack up…. no, the neighbour hadn’t arrived but not to mind, she’d already packed up because not one person painted a T-shirt – not one person.

Ok, got it.  Went back to the workshop a little distracted and concerned with how the markets hadn’t gone to plan at all… finished the workshop a little disappointed with the content – got the answer to how to structure drama in a movie and left the convent clear that go to workshops are getting crossed off the bucket list.  Paying to learn somebody else’s content is sssoooo losing it’s appeal.

The drive home was a nightmare, the gears got so bad, I eventually could only drive in 2nd gear and then, really, really slowly… had to slow right down when I saw a red light so that I didn’t have to stop and risk not being able to move when the lights turned green. Somehow I did it, I got home, well, not really all the way home, I got all the way to where Katherine had left the trailer packed with the market gear.. and there was no way my car would be reversing to connect the trailer, the only thing it could do at that stage was be pushed to the side of the road just in position to not get a ticket for however long it would be parked there.

How funny’s this, Katherine had, without knowing it, left the trailer in the backyard of somebody I didn’t necessarily want to run in to until I’d got myself together.  The one and only time we’d met was when I was with an ex-boyfriend who brought out the very worst in me. Considering we’d only met once I wasn’t exactly keen to have to knock on her door and let her know my trailer was parked in her backyard because my car was broken down.  A highly successful woman, I felt completely intimidated by under normal circumstances, it’s seeming like I’m doomed to connect with her when I’m in the worst possible situation I can possibly be in.  We had the uncomfortable ‘wow imagine seeing you here’ conversation and yes she was fine with me leaving the trailer there until Monday and yes I should stop by and have a coffee now that I lived around the corner. such. a. small. world.

Oh, and she was also getting a visit from my exboyfriend’s friends’ wife who was visiting from Germany the following weekend – what perfect timing for my ex to find out how much my life has improved since we separated!!!! AAARRRGH!

Called my hairdresser to organise a lift to the modelshoot the next day, then went home to refocus, get super organised for the day that was going to transform my life, awaken a fresh purpose and propel me forth into a new direction.  John picked me up bright and early the next morning in his mini, which meant that the futon wouldn’t be coming with us – shame, I’d pictured some of the models lying on the black/white background and they looked really great (in my imagination).

Never mind, the shoot got done.. had too many clothes, the main dress that Victor Alexandre gave me didn’t get photographed, some of the models never want to do TFP again after that experience, I learned a lot and got some great photo’s.

The car ended up sitting two blocks away from home for three weeks until I sold it on Ebay…. after getting a mobile mechanic to tell me that it was a broken clutch, I finally decided to sell Nubby, the super Nubira – I hadn’t been driving it much and minimalism is now ‘in’ anyway. So I’ve upped my cool factor rating by walking a lot and catching public transport around town. Oh, and the trailer got wheeled back to the garage two days later… the next question is hhhmmm… do I sell that too and downsize to become an ultra portable t-shirt painting franchise?

See, that’s what I mean, had I known what was around the corner, I wouldn’t have gone to storytelling that first night, I would have waited ’til life was a little more under control… I’m saying that with the notion that my life will, at some stage, be in some state of some type of control… by me, that is, it’s the notion that I will be the driver of this life I’m living.

To think, on the same weekend, I paid for a workshop to learn how to structure drama!